This invention relates to drilling fluid solidification.
The drilling of boreholes is generally carried out using a rotary drilling process. The rotary drilling of a borehole is accomplished by rotating a drill string having a drill pipe and a drill bit at its lower end. Weight is applied to the drill bit while rotating to create a borehole into the earth. The drill string is hollow and sections are added to the drill string to increase its length as the borehole is deepened. This rotary drilling process creates significant amounts of friction which produces heat along with fragments of the strata being penetrated. The fragments of the strata must be removed from the borehole and the drill bit must be cooled to extend its useful life. Both of these necessities are accomplished by the circulation of a fluid down through the drill string and up to the surface between the drill string and the wall of the borehole.
Once the borehole has been drilled to the desired depth, it may be desirable to isolate the separate areas, zones or formations transversed by the borehole. For extraction of fluids from formations, a conduit (casing) must be inserted into the borehole extending from the surface downward, and liners my be hung inside the casing.
At this point it becomes necessary to fill the annulus between the casing and the borehole wall or between the liner and casing with a material which will seal the annulus (interfacial sealing) to inhibit communication between various formations penetrated by the wellbore and which will provide structural support for the casing or liner. This is commonly referred to as primary cementing.
Generally, the borehole into which the casing or liner is introduced is filled with drilling mud. Conventional Portland cement and conventional drilling muds are incompatible. Thus, a mixture of conventional Portland cement and conventional drilling mud will not set up into a strong cement. In addition, the viscosity of such mixtures becomes uncontrollable and may either become too viscous to pump or may get thinner. Portland cement contains a significant amount of soluble calcium, much of it in the form of calcium hydroxide (lime). The calcium can flocculate the clays and some types of polymers used in drilling fluids. This can result in severe rheological problems, poor fluid loss control and filter cake quality. Also, some additives in drilling fluids complex this calcium thus interfering with the hydration reactions for Portland cement.
At the completion of drilling, the used drilling fluid is displaced from the borehole using some means to keep it separate from the cement to follow. This creates two problems. First, the means developed by the industry to keep the drilling fluid separate is relatively complex, involving the use of a landing collar and a pair of wiper plugs. In addition, the thus-displaced drilling fluid must be disposed of. Wyant et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,499,491 Mar. 10, 1970) proposed a partial solution to this problem by mixing a cementitious material such as Portland cement with powdered sodium silicate glass (to accelerate the set and overcome retarding effects of some of the mud additives) and a treated drilling fluid. While this does solve the problem of drilling fluid disposal since the drilling fluid is incorporated into the cement, it necessitates the use of extraneous components in order to achieve a sufficient degree of compatibility to make the cement work at all.
Thus, almost a century after oil well cementing began, the problem of incompatibility between Portland cement and ordinary aqueous drilling fluids still precludes significant commercial use of used drilling fluid to produce cementitious slurries with Portland cement.
It would thus be desirable to solidify aqueous drilling fluids with Portland cement. It would be desirable to produce cement from used drilling fluid which has high strength. It would further be desirable to produce a cement from drilling fluid and Portland cement without the need to use silicate glass and to avoid, as much as possible, the immediate rheological problems caused by the addition of Portland cement to aqueous drilling fluids.